Family time is incredibly valuable.

Riana was a girl with a huge heart and an equally big love, despite being only 11 years old, she is someone who already has an incredible ability to show what she feels and communicate her feelings, seeming almost like a joke if someone consider that Ren was unable to do so in the past, it was something that she had definitely inherited from Nora.

It was no surprise to anyone that the Ren/Valkyrie family was so functional unlike the others, Eijiro and Riana had been raised with the idea that they should take care of each other at all times, circumstances or disagreements did not matter when the other's life or their mere integrity was at risk.

Both Ren and Nora worked at Beacon and lived there, in a completely isolated building so that the teachers were not disturbed by the students during their sleeping times, Eijiro already knew Beacon like the palm of his hand, while Riana had barely found the desire to explore, so it was quite easy for her to get lost.

Riana stared at her plate of pancakes, taking one of them straight into her hand and shoving it into her mouth in one bite, swallowing with a somewhat strange lack of difficulty.

"You're going to choke if you eat like that" Eijiro muttered with some concern, standing up from his chair and stretching until his hand was in front of his sister's face, taking the pancake out of her mouth and causing her to groan in frustration "Done"

"Dad!" Riana whimpered in adorable anger, looking at her father with pleading in her eyes "Eijiro took my food away!"

"He wants to keep you from drowning" Ren replied normally, pouring orange juice into two glass cups and handing them to each of his children "He is your older brother and he will always take care of you"

"But he protects me all the time" Riana sighed, awkwardly shifting her chair until she was next to her brother, placing her head on his shoulder, she waited patiently until her father finally retreated to the kitchen, giving them a moment of privacy "Hey, Eijiro, why do you think mom and dad love each other?"

The young Eijiro looked at his sister somewhat confused, his mind took a couple of seconds to process the question, which caused him to raise an eyebrow in suspicion "What's the point of the question? Aren't you too young for that?"

"Mom and Dad say they've been together since they were even younger than us" Riana replied, letting her chin fall onto the living room table "What will the future hold for me ? Will I find a boy as cute as Dad?"

"We don't know yet" Eijiro snorted, captivated by his sister's attitude "The future is still far away, little sister, haven't you thought about the combat school you want to go to?"

Riana had to keep her answer in her thoughts when her mother, Nora Valkyrie, entered the room with a strange look, almost as if it were one of suspicion, the little brunette remained silent, feeling her mother's penetrating eyes on her.

Nora looked at her son shortly after, receiving a soft and calm smile from the pink-eyed boy, identical to his father in every way, Nora sighed in relief, letting herself fall onto the couch in front of the television, her body sinking into the fabric as she moaned in satisfaction.

"Are you okay, mommy?" Riana asked, getting down from her chair and adorably walking over to her mother, patting her forehead a couple of times.

"I'm just a little tired" Nora replied, firmly grabbing her daughter's arm and lifting her up with ease, laying her down beside her "What about you, little one?...I heard you talking about a boy just as cute as your father?"

"I, no, uh" Riana stammered, feeling somewhat embarrassed at being overheard by her own mother.

"Your father and I fell in love because…we were together ever since our home was destroyed, we really became the most important thing to each other, he was my pillar and I was his…you read many stories of knights and princesses" Nora lightly scolded her daughter, although her loving smile was still on her face "You have us, Riana, when the time comes for you to find that special person, you will know, believe me"

"Okay" Riana murmured in response, pressing herself against her mother's chest "Eijiro has a girlfriend

!"

"What?" Eijiro muttered, turning his head slowly before meeting his mother's grim eyes, before finally being hit by her fist.

...

The Vytal Festival was an event that had been incredibly important in the last months of the year 4088, almost everyone in Remnant knew the fateful event that had been the night of the last match of the tournament, where Penny Polendina was killed by Pyrrha Nikos, and the fall of Beacon began.

It had been 27 long years since the last Vytal tournament of such size, once all the kingdoms were completely recovered, it was decided to start with something much simpler and less dangerous, smaller scale tournaments focused on the combat schools of each kingdom, Pharos, Signal, Sanctum, Oscuro, Alsyus, among many others.

The combat school tournaments had been going on for 20 years, each of the champions ended up becoming a kind of promise for the world of Huntsmen, receiving coverage by the media, praise, and occasionally harassment.

Waylon Branwen had been the champion for four consecutive years, since he entered Pharos he proved to be more than capable of defeating whoever stood in front of him, since his first victory, he has been considered a kind of prodigy, that being the origin of his fame.

Currently, the accident of the vehicle carrying Ex Requiem was much more notorious in the kingdom of Vale.

Some time had passed since the accident, so now the fact that the Vytal festival was finally going to return in all its splendor was more common, the Remnant academy tournament was returning after almost three decades, Waylon knew that this was a golden opportunity to shoot his reputation through the air, if team WBRN won, he would be on the right path to be just as respected as team RWBY.

The boy looked at even more news related to the festival, in a couple of weeks students from other academies would arrive at Beacon to continue their studies, which was exciting for the entire student body of Vale Academy, mainly because of how interesting it used to be to meet students who had a way of fighting and handling situations quite different.

Waylon tried to focus on that, however, his eyes couldn't help but be fixed on the messaging app on his Neo-Scroll, his finger pressed on the icon faster than his mind could process, opening all of his contacts.

There were hundreds of messages that he hadn't answered from many people, some old friend of Pharos who had tried to contact him and ended up ignored, or more than a dozen girls asking him out or similar things, he didn't usually pay attention to that, however, this time was different.

Winter Schnee, 9 messages.

Waylon.

Waylon.

Waylon.

You're not going to answer?

You have a weapon of great value to the company and to me, I'm too busy to go to Beacon and snatch it from you like it was a toy, I want you to come to the Schnee Corporations building and give it to me, now.

Are you ignoring me? You failed your mission and now someone is hurt, are you scared? Stop acting like a child and obey.

There are people very interested in the weapon you decided to just take, I don't have time for this, Waylon, hand it over.

There were several days of complete silence before Winter messaged again.

I can't believe you're such a coward that you don't want to face your mistakes, things didn't go well and the driver got hurt, people started talking and you feel bad, but that doesn't matter, Waylon, you're practically a Schnee, I suffered this when I was your age and I definitely didn't behave in such a childish way, I need Ex Requiem, I will contact Oscar if you continue with this attitude.

Again, a space of a few days before the last message.

I'm not going to keep begging you, I can keep buyers distracted for a while with weapons inferior to Ex Requiem, perhaps continue with the Ex line if you choose to keep quiet, but I want you to know that there will be consequences.

Waylon turned off the device after reading the last message, his chest became incredibly heavy and painful, while his eyes began to burn as if a flash of light had hit them violently, the boy did not know at what moment the tears escaped from his eyes.

The importance of Ex Requiem was fairly familiar to Waylon, he knew very little about the weapon beyond what he had discovered after examining it, it was clearly important due to the plasma cell located inside a hard-to-access compartment, and apparently the cables that connected the power source to the metal of the blade tended to come loose and burst more frequently, fortunately for him, Tai's help was enough to partially fix it, so at least he wouldn't earn his mother's wrath for the damage.

Knowing that there were interested buyers for Ex Requiem was something new and surprising, making him feel even worse as he practically now knew that his mother had entrusted him with the protection of the weapon, and he simply ran away with it, finding himself unable to confront her after his failure.

Ex Requiem was safe, but the driver of the vehicle was not, he still had not regained consciousness, which did not make the boy feel better, guilt was consuming him slowly but surely, robbing him of valuable hours of sleep.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he had expected his mother to comfort him in some way, to tell him that everything would be okay and that he did a good job, reading what she had said was not at all surprising, she had always been very direct and did not usually sugarcoat her words, and yet, he had been avoiding reading those measly nine messages for a whole month.

There were no words of comfort, complaints, and disappointment could almost seep into her words.

Waylon's tearful eyes focused this time on the second contact, Qrow Branwen, his father.

Qrow Branwen, 10 messages.

Waylon, I heard what happened on the news, are you okay ?

I spoke to your mother, she told me that you took a sword and that you have not returned it.

Your mother is upset, very upset, I could barely calm her down enough to keep her from going crazy, you know how she is.

I know you well, I know you didn't keep the gun on a whim, Winter can be very complicated sometimes, I understand, you can talk to me if you need to.

Waylon?

Waylon? Are you upset?

Winter said she'd be coming home this weekend, she's finally getting out of that office, she loses track of time so easily, I should put a clock on her head, don't you think?

Come home please, I'm sure you can fix it.

You didn't come, you don't read my messages either, I'll talk to Winter, she must have scared you again.

I managed to convince her not to be so hard on you for now, that the academy must have your brain working at all hours, call me when you feel better.

"Are you okay?" A somewhat sleepy voice surprised Waylon, forcing him to turn off the hologram of his Neo-Scroll to see who it was, Roy Schnee looked quite tired, his white hair was disheveled and somewhat disheveled, his hand scratched his chest, covered by his Pumpkin Pete hood, directly inherited from his father.

"What are you doing up?" Waylon asked, his voice sounding quite low and somewhat nasal, giving away that he had been crying.

"I heard you crying" Roy murmured, Waylon touched his face gently, partially wetting his fingers "Was that Aunt Winter?"

"Yeah" Waylon muttered, moving to the side to give Roy enough room to sit down "…I guess you figured out what's been going on with me these past few days, huh?"

Waylon waited for some sort of scathing or ironic response, though all he received in response was an awkward silence in the room, only interrupted by Neithan's sighs in his sleep, or Bryan's purring sound.

"I shouldn't tell you this but, everyone in the family knows it" Roy murmured, Waylon remained silent, giving him the signal to continue "We all know how…harsh and exaggerated Aunt Winter is with you, quite a bit, I just hoped that the reason why you were so distant wasn't that…you know you have us, right?"

"This is different" Waylon shook his head, keeping his voice low enough not to wake his cousins, even if Bryan was able to hear him, he didn't look like he would wake up "Mom is a complicated woman, she's accomplished a lot in her life, she's the Winter Maiden, the CEO of Schnee Corporations…she could have even been the General of Atlas if she wanted to, I have to live up to expectations"

"That doesn't mean you should mentally punish yourself for failing, we're not experts, we're in this academy to learn everything necessary to be Huntsmen in the future, failing is part of this…" Roy explained calmly, trying to calm his cousin, Waylon shook his head, clearly unwilling to understand.

"We should sleep" Waylon muttered, rubbing his face with his hand to wipe away the trail of tears, Roy sighed in defeat, getting up from his cousin's bed and going to his own, Waylon waited a moment to try to fall asleep, his constant, jumbled thoughts still roaming around in his mind.

Unfortunately for him, he couldn't get a single bit of sleep.

...

Riana was more than excited.

The activities in Beacon related to the Vytal festival were new and definitely innovative, now being entirely part of each student's final grade, the multiple activities were varied and were not entirely related to the tournament, there were things as mundane as helping at the city stalls, or even better yet, organizing the festival in Beacon itself.

It was quite simple, the number of teams that could qualify for the tournament was not unlimited, there was a limit of four teams per year, therefore, there were 16 in total which would represent the academy and its kingdom in the tournament, luckily for the girl, the qualification processes would begin today.

The person who was in charge of finding the best of the best was Nora Valkyrie, known of course for her chaotic methods and motivation to teach students, Riana knew the process thanks to being the daughter of the Headmistress, in short, Nora would do multiple fights of all kinds, in teams, in pairs, or individually, all to better understand the abilities of the students and how capable they would be of winning, the chances of the final round being students from the same academy were relatively high, so it was better to be prepared for everything.

Riana walked through the halls of Beacon with the rest of the STRM team, the girl's pupils had been completely replaced by bright stars which betrayed her excitement for the start of the festival, there were more students than usual outside their respective classrooms, decorating them and placing the occasional pamphlet to promote their activities, curiosity had already begun to attack the girl.

Team STRM arrived at Nora's classroom in a couple more minutes, a fight between Eijiro Ren and Kaito Nakamura was just ending, the son of the Headmistress didn't seem to have much difficulty when, even without using his main weapon, he broke Kaito's aura with a punch connected to his stomach, giving him the victory.

"I see" Nora muttered to herself, activating her Neo-Scroll and scanning the long list of students, thinking of an upcoming ranking match, her eyes drifting away from the hologram when she noticed the first-year students were already there "Oh, I see, Eijiro, Kaito, go to your next class, you're going to hold me back from the younger ones"

Eijiro and Kaito nodded, walking towards the classroom door, the black-haired boy quickly looked at his sister, who was sitting next to Waylon, and gave her a light squeeze on the shoulder.

"Am I late?" Riana asked Waylon, leaning a little closer to him.

It took Waylon a couple of seconds to process Riana's words, turning his head slightly "Just a little, Eijiro and Kaito were already finishing up when we arrived"

"Perfect" she murmured in response, still staying close to him.

Nora cleared her throat, drawing the attention of all her students "Welcome to a new class, It won't really be a class, today we begin the qualifying battles for the Vytal Festival tournament, so we'll be a bit busy all day, you yourselves have signed up in previous days to confirm whether you want to try to qualify or not. The rest of the students will have to take care of something else… ask Professor Taiyang or Neil, both of them can help you"

Within seconds, several teams of students stood up from their seats and left the classroom, leaving only those who were willing to participate in the tournament.

"So…we have to move towards the academy coliseum with the rest of the students willing to participate in the tournament" Nora gestured towards the door of her classroom and left without waiting for the students, being followed by them shortly after.

...

The tranquility of the green areas of Vale was comparable to how quiet and serene any corner of Mistral could be, both kingdoms had many open spaces due to their geographical location, where nature predominated over the creation of humans and faunus.

Ruby walked calmly down the rock-lined path that led to a huge house, bordering on being considered a small mansion, the two-story structure took up quite a bit of the woman's view, the dark brown colors of the bricks and the darkened windows were a sight that, to this day, continued to surprise her a little.

The Branwen/Schnee residence was located quite far from the hustle and bustle of the city or any kind of nearby town, getting to the place was not so easy considering that one had to take a somewhat curious detour from the road to get there, something that Winter had appreciated during her first years as a mother, which were where she paid the most attention to her son.

The home surrounded by trees was quite large, not as large as the new Schnee Manor in Atlas, but anybody could see the influence of the refined and curious taste of Willow Schnee, who was the one who ordered the construction of the home shortly after Qrow and Winter got married several years ago.

The enormous home had a small garden to the side, with a modest fountain and a shed with various gardening tools, the nearby lands had been inhabited by animals such as cows, pigs, sheep, and the occasional cat, which had become part of Qrow Branwen's life as a retired Huntsman.

Basically, he was a farmer now.

Ruby tapped the mailbox, decorated with three handprints of different colors, one was red, one was blue, and the last one was black, if she guessed correctly, they were the footprints of the three members of the family, since the black one was considerably smaller than the other two.

It had to be Waylon.

Ruby reached the entrance and pressed the button located on the side of the door, ringing the bell inside the house, she could barely hear a couple of movements inside the structure for a few seconds, before the door was opened by a man with a somewhat worn appearance.

Qrow Branwen looked quite well-groomed for his age, his black hair had been replaced by a deep gray that betrayed his advanced age, his usual combat outfit had been hung in the closet a couple of years ago, now the man wears a long-sleeved plaid shirt, somewhat torn blue jeans and heavy boots, almost as if he were a real farmer.

"Ruby" Qrow smiled when he saw his niece, stepping out of his house and hugging her with all the strength his old body could give him, Ruby returned the gesture with enthusiasm "You should have called"

"I wanted to come and surprise you" Ruby murmured, her silver eyes traveling around the interior hallway of the enormous house, the perfectly maintained wood and dim lighting giving it the feeling of an Atlas home "If I'm bothering you, I can just fly away"

"No problem, I'm alone anyway" Qrow moved away from the door to give Ruby some space, who quickly entered the house and continued her appreciation of the decoration, It had been a few years since she had come here, so some things had changed.

There were quite a few pictures hanging on the walls, all of them perfectly cared for and painted, they were all the family members portrayed with precision, Weiss, Whitley, Willow, including Winter herself.

There were a few more, Roy Schnee, Wendy Schnee who is Whitley's daughter, and Waverly Schnee, Weiss and Jaune's eldest daughter, all three seemed to have been portrayed when they were very young, they couldn't have been more than eight years old in each painting.

Waylon clearly had several more, although these were more like framed photos from different eras and placed in different places, on top of the furniture with drawers or on the wall, the red-eyed boy was an infant or a teenager in these images, in addition to being accompanied by his parents, if Winter was in them, the boy showed a radiant and genuine smile.

Oddly enough, there weren't any of him in recent times.

"Winter has a strange fascination with having a picture of everyone, absolutely everyone, the only one missing is Nicholas, her grandfather, but all the photos are in the Atlas mansion, so the family is incomplete" Qrow explained as he led Ruby to the spacious living room, which had a huge window that showed the countryside, the man quickly headed to the kitchen, beginning to quickly prepare something for his niece.

Ruby nodded, looking at the huge field adorned with some animals "So, Winter hasn't been here lately"

"No" Qrow said out loud, though he didn't seem genuinely sad about his wife's absence "She's been in that office more than here these past few years, so it's nothing new for me, that's better, I can slack off as much as I want"

"You are the one winning then" Ruby watched as her uncle returned from the kitchen and handed her a glass filled with orange juice "…I suppose you know about the Branwen tribe's problem, right?"

Qrow sighed lightly, sitting down on the largest chair and letting his body sink halfway, his own glass of juice went straight to his lips, taking a long, deep drink "I've been following that lately, I'm retired and all that, but I can still help from the comfort of my own home"

Ruby nodded, somewhat relieved that she didn't have to inform her uncle about the whole thing "I've fought them several times, the trucks, the guns, the Dust, the alliance with Torchwick, these bandits don't usually work like this, getting so deep into the kingdoms to steal resources, they usually just loot villages and leave them in ruins"

It took Qrow a couple of seconds to respond, remembering as best he could from his days as a bandit "The Branwen are reluctant to enter the realms, for them the structure of Vale and Mistral are simply some kind of offense to true freedom, one in which everyone can do what they want, when they want, and where they want"

"Murders, rapes, crimes of all kinds, that was what the tribe promoted" Qrow muttered, nostalgia did not feel like a pleasant feeling when he thought of his old home, no, it was bitter and not at all pleasant "Still, dad always wanted to take over all of Vale's territory, all of Anima, in fact, Vacuo included"

"Scav Branwen" Ruby remembered the name of Qrow's father, more interested in the direction of the conversation "That was when STRQ was formed, right?"

Qrow nodded "My father's plan was for us to learn everything we needed to know about Beacon in order to carry out an attack, the academies were meant to be an army for the kingdom, everyone knows that, and so does he, Raven and I had to go through initiation in order to begin the operation. Four years, Beacon was to fall in our last year"

"Summer and Tai changed everything, to our surprise, I had learned what I wanted and Raven fell madly in love with the idiot with strange charisma, it was just a matter of time before the attack happened, just a day after Summer won the tournament" Qrow continued explaining, his voice becoming heavier with each moment.

"Things didn't go the way my father wanted, when the tribe attacked, I had already told Ozpin everything, and the counterattack was even worse, the bandits who entered the kingdom ended up defeated and captured, I returned to our main camp, ready to do what I had to do" Qrow closed his eyes, mentally preparing himself to remember one of the most tragic and horrible moments of his life.

"I killed my father" Qrow paused, finding the order of events in his memories "Raven came back, she was very upset with me, and we fought, her mental state didn't allow her to defeat me properly, and I took her down without too many complications…by then, she was already pregnant with Yang and…"

"And?" Ruby raised an eyebrow, puzzled by her uncle's sudden pause.

"…And that's all" Qrow swallowed hard for a moment, clutching his forehead "That was until several months ago, when Torchwick's daughter started putting on shows in Dust tents"

"Felicia had already appeared in the city before, but she wasn't with the tribe, she was with Miltia and Melanie, the Malachite twins" Ruby remembered some news she had seen in the past, all relating the twins to the city's new criminal "They separated for...reasons that nobody knows, but, how serious must it have been for the tribe to ally with her?"

"There are more leaders" Qrow muttered, Ruby remained silent, giving him the space to speak "I should have told you this from the beginning, but there are two more leaders who accompany Raven and who make the decisions, I don't know who they are, but this is very new, It has never happened before in the entire history of the tribe, usually, the leader's strongest brat would take the place after them, but it seems that Raven gave a chance to new talents"

"This might give you an idea?" Ruby pulled an EMP out of her cloak, capable of knocking out power to a couple of houses "This is from the Schnee Corporations, it's not Dust, it's not a weapon, it can knock out power to a neighborhood if it's complete, but in this state it would barely be able to blow out the light bulbs in this house"

"It must have been Felicia's idea, she is a nerd after all, is not a surprise that she knows how this stuff works" Qrow shrugged, running a hand through his short beard "But I have a theory that one of the leaders is someone from the kingdoms, or at least, someone who knows them well"

"And the other one " Ruby didn't want to leave any doubts in the air, if Qrow could confirm something, it had to be now.

"…I have no idea" Qrow simply shook his head, his eyes falling on one of the multiple paintings with his son's face "But I have a feeling they might be doing something soon, I recommend talking to Winter and asking her about a facility that isn't in use, at least not apparently… Laboratory 33.1, I think that's what it was called"

Ruby nodded, the uncomfortable feeling in her chest didn't seem to have any intention of going away and that worried her, perhaps Qrow might know more than he was claiming or he was simply telling the truth, the man's lying skills were always admirable and claiming if his words were true now would be useless, however, Ruby wanted to believe that the man was simply telling the truth.

It had been too many years since Qrow last swung his sword to defend someone, the old man had a family with problems and it was clear that he worried in his own way, lying was not something that Qrow continued to do, strangely, it was Ruby who had to hide the truth from people she loves.

Like Yang, Blake and Weiss, who have no idea of the situation that Remnant's future is in.

"I guess that's all" Ruby stood up, an action that was imitated by her uncle "Thank you very much for talking to me, Uncle Qrow, what you said will help me and Oscar"

"It's nice to help out every now and then" Qrow smiled weakly and crossed the hall to the entrance, opening the door to make it easier for Ruby to leave "See you later, Ruby"

Ruby's body transformed into a cloud of roses and left her uncle's house, beginning her journey to a place somewhat far from her current position, but which, was very familiar to her these last days.

The Schnee Crop building.

...

The qualifying matches ended up being much more interesting and complex than Riana would have thought, the special arena used only by Nora Valkyrie for pre-arranged matches was now used as the main area where all the students would fight to qualify, and rather than feeling like an arena, it felt more similar to a cage.

There was a somewhat comical amount of students in the stands of the arena, in fact, Riana couldn't even correctly tell which year each one was from, as there were totally new faces for her that she had never seen, which was certainly exciting.

Riana looked at Waylon without much discretion, appreciating his physical appearance and complicated expression, the girl had a somewhat strange feeling in relation to her not-so-secret love, she didn't want to seem like an obsessive crazy girl, but she knew when Waylon was acting weird.

Someone as perfectionist and dedicated as him would not forget his Neo-Scroll.

"Hey" Riana called out to Waylon, who was staring at a duo match in the arena "Is everything okay?"

Waylon didn't respond immediately, his eyes drifting away from the ongoing fight and moving to his left hand, where uniquely designed Neo-Scroll was usually perfectly strapped in his hand, he didn't want anything to do with the device right now, it felt heavy.

He felt even heavier when Riana placed her hand over his, sending an electric current through his body.

"Not everything is exactly okay" Waylon shrugged, not trying to remove his hand from Riana's, a gesture that the girl took as progress "Don't worry about me, it's normal for me to have… problems"

"But I care about you, I want to see your pretty smile more often" Riana murmured in response, feeling her own face heat up slightly, Waylon couldn't help but laugh softly, fulfilling the girl's wish and forming a genuine smile on his lips.

Finally, the duo match had ended, Nora Valkyrie took a couple of moments before reporting the conclusion of the match, her mind was more interested and focused on the fact that her youngest daughter was practically flirting in an incredibly weird way with the son of Qrow Branwen and Winter Schnee.

Nora finally spoke, giving her daughter quite a scare, as it turned out that the woman was standing next to her "Hawk Kogan and Monica Kogan have won the match…in the next few days the two remaining members will have their own match and…they will qualify…"

Both Hawk and Monica looked at each other with pride and smugness, nodding to each other before leaving the arena, Waylon turned to his side to see Bryan's reaction, finding that he wasn't there, and in fact, Roy didn't seem to be around either.

"Ahem Ahem" Nora coughed exaggeratedly into the microphone, attracting the attention of all the students present in the arena "The next match will be…between Waylon Branwen, Riana Ren, and Tatsuno Dagoth alongside Yona Herman, please come to the combat area"

Riana's fair skin color took on a very strong reddish tint, the girl began to stutter meaningless words, even more so when Waylon simply stood up and obeyed her mother's orders "M-Mom ?!, what are you doing?! Waylon and I are not even on the same team!"

Nora nodded, leaning forward to whisper in her daughter's ear "Yes, but I can see how much you want to spend time with him…I'm helping you out a little"

"But, but, it will seem so obvious! Don't you think he will make fun of me if he knows that I have more feelings for him than just a desire for companionship?!" Riana asked, genuinely scared.

"…No, I don't think so" Nora simply shook her head from side to side, somewhat confused by this new and strange shy side of her daughter, without waiting much longer, she easily lifted her with her arms, carrying her towards the sand as if she were a baby.

Riana was thrown into the sand by her own mother, falling headlong onto the sand-covered ground and getting partially dirty, Waylon helped her stand up and cleaned her up a bit, making her blush even harder.

"Good" Waylon muttered, creating a glyph and reaching inside, pulling out an exact replica of his father's sword, Harbinger, something strange from Riana's perspective, as she had seen the white-haired boy use a different weapon the last few weeks.

Riana's brain took a few moments to cool down, going into a guard pose out of pure instinct and raising her arms into the air, the multiple blades attached to her wrists in the black leather holder still there.

The girl looked ahead to recognize her opponents, Tatsuno Dagoth and Yona Herman, the leader of team TINY and his partner were not total strangers to Riana, since in her week of punishment due to Myrian she had some interaction with them, however, demonstrated by Kaito's aggressiveness against Samuel, Riana could not be sure if Tatsuno and Yona had something against her, or similar.

Tatsuno was quite tall, perhaps reaching six feet, taller than Waylon and the same height as Bryan, his well-worked muscles revealed his fondness for physical stimulation, his somewhat long purple hair tied in the shape of a tomato gave him a somewhat more pleasant appearance, his skin of a color close to caramel spoke a little of his origin, perhaps he was from Vacuo.

Yona on the other hand was quite different from Tatsuno, her height was somewhat short considering her age, Riana could perfectly be taller, her light blue hair was somewhat garish and uncomfortable to look at, her purple eyes did not reveal her feelings or thoughts, her somewhat sophisticated dress adapted for combat had a subtle trace of floral details, perhaps that said something about her, the only visible accessory was a beautiful bracelet with an opal embedded in the center.

Riana growled lightly, her past experiences with the two remaining TINY team members weren't exactly good or memorable, so her body was more alert than usual, Waylon noticed this quickly enough, raising his sword slightly.

Tatsuno seemed to notice Riana's discomfort, so he raised his hand and shook his head "You must be thinking that we're going to get more aggressive than usual, won't worry, girl, we don't hold grudges"

"Huh?" Riana muttered in response, clearly surprised "You…don't want to make my life miserable?"

"There's no need to do that" Yona replied before Tatsuno could, causing an oddly adorable pout to appear on the purple-haired boy's face "We appreciate what Samuel did for Kaito, and we regret his behavior…he was raised in a racist clan by Mistral, we don't want to justify it, but we want you to at least understand why he thinks the way he does"

"Ah… that's weird" Riana muttered, feeling somewhat embarrassed for having thought she was going to be attacked for personal reasons "So, everything is settled!But that doesn't mean we'll let you win!"

"This is weird" Waylon said to himself, finally leaning his body forward a little.

Nora took her microphone once more, tapping it to verify that it was working "Alright, alright, get ready for combat, this is going to get good"

Nora's words may have been directed at the fact that she would be able to see her daughter fighting alongside her apparent crush, or it was a mere coincidence, however, the students quickly turned their attention to Waylon, the class prodigy.

The red-eyed didn't wait another second, pushing off with his leg and swinging his sword upwards in an agile movement, firmly hitting Tatsuno in the chest, the bigger boy took two tonfas located on his hips, trying to return some of the damage to the white-haired boy, who only moved to the side.

Riana jumped slightly upon seeing Waylon attack so quickly, without waiting for a clear instruction, Riana threw two blades into the air and used her telekinesis to direct them towards Yona, the blue-haired girl tore out the opal embedded in the bracelet, the small circular shape transformed in less than a second, taking the form of a somewhat long golden javelin of pain.

"Ah" Riana muttered, Waylon looked to the side, distracted for a second, receiving a rather strong punch from Tatsuno, Bryan was stronger, but he shouldn't underestimate someone who had more experience than him.

"I always wanted to meet someone who was above Pyrrha Nikos" Tatsuno said with some humor in his voice, perhaps not taking Waylon's reputation seriously, Yona caught the red-eyed boy off guard, hitting him in the ankle causing him to fall to his knees against the ground, and then hitting him firmly in the jaw "Ouch, Yona, don't be so harsh, they are first years"

Waylon growled lightly, the blows were not exactly painful or worrying, his body was already naturally resistant and his aura could be at the level of a more experienced Jaune Arc, however, he could not take this fight lightly.

Waylon raised his sword and swung it in a crescent moon shape, pushing Yona and Tatsuno away, without waiting another second, he took a piece of dust out of his pocket and shattered it in his hand, creating two gravity glyphs beneath them both and tying them to the ground.

"Riana!" Waylon shouted loudly, hoping the girl would understand the situation, Riana threw several blades in the direction of Yona and Tatsuno, managing to hit each of her projectiles against them at a somewhat impressive speed, causing the glyphs to break.

Riana retrieved her blades using her telekinesis, moving next to Waylon to listen for some kind of order, she was somewhat used to Samuel being the one to roar what to do during practice fights or to find the flaws in the opponent, Waylon seemed to be more instinctive, as he only called her by her name, hoping she would understand.

"Let's break their auras as quickly as possible, that way we'll avoid- " Waylon couldn't finish explaining his plan when Yona's javelin grazed his ear, forcing him to look at the blue-haired girl, the elongated weapon returned to the hand of its bearer when she simply activated a mechanism in her bracelet, attracting the javelin once again to her.

Yona took out a pair of Dust crystals from her dress, the greenish color was familiar to both first-year students, it was Plant Dust, a somewhat rare and little used one in the Huntsmen field, but quite well known in gardening.

Yona threw both crystals to the ground, her hand glowed a lime green and both crystals burst in an instant, creating two thick vines that shot out towards Waylon, catching him firmly and imprisoning his arms.

Riana groaned in surprise as Waylon was immobilized in an instant, out of pure instinct she raised her blades and attempted to cut the vines, being firmly grabbed by Tatsuno, who lifted her into the air and slammed her into the ground, knocking some of the air out of her chest.

Waylon growled in irritation, creating a whole succession of glyphs behind him, his aura felt consumed by using such an amount of energy, without thinking twice, he fired a burst of projectiles towards Tatsuno and Yona, freeing himself and Riana in the process.

The teenager quickly approached the girl, helping her up "I'm going to immobilize them as quickly as possible, I need you to charge some energy into the speed of your blades to pierce their auras in a single instant"

"Okay, sounds good" Riana stood up with some difficulty, coughing a couple of times as her body was still recovering air.

Waylon sighed for a second, transforming his Harbinger replica into its scythe form, the gears of the weapon groaned as he forced it to change shape, the blades separating and transforming into a curved blade, with his free hand, he summoned Arondite, the spear of Telsius, and finally prepared to attack.

Yona threw another Dust crystal to the ground, transforming it into a group of reins which Waylon cut with a single movement of his scythe, the red-eyed spun Harbinger in circles a couple of times, managing to hit Tatsuno, the third-year student placed his tonfas in an X position, trying to defend himself, receiving a powerful stab in the stomach from Arondite's replica.

Waylon pinned Harbinger to the ground, near Tatsuno's neck to immobilize him for a moment, he quickly pulled Arondite, managing to avoid the accurate impact of Yona's Javelin.

"What a bad joke" Yona moaned, feeling directly how Waylon hit her with Arondite's body, stunning her in an instant, the red-eyed took two more gravity crystals and broke them against the ground, managing to create two glyphs that kept Tatsuno and Yona tied.

"Now!" Waylon shouted, Riana threw a dozen knives into the air and used her telekinesis on them, stopping them and beginning to spin them over her two opponents, the air began to move along with the blades, when they finally managed to get enough speed, Riana redirected them towards Tatsuno and Yona, hitting them at an impressive speed and destroying their auras in an instant.

"Riana Ren and Waylon Branwen win!" Nora shouted through the microphone, causing a series of screams from the rest of the students located in the stands, both Waylon and Riana smiled at each other, happy to have managed to win the fight.

Both of them approached Tatsuno and Yona, helping them up and making sure they didn't have any noticeable scratches, both members of team TINY didn't exactly look happy about having lost, something clear due to the grimace on their faces, but they weren't upset either.

"I should stop talking while I fight" Tatsuno muttered, stretching for a moment and causing his shoulders to crack "I underestimated you a bit, Waylon, you are as capable as they say"

Waylon couldn't help but smile softly, extending his hand to shake Tatsuno's, a gesture that the older boy accepted "Thanks, you gave me a couple of problems, but not that much"

Tatsuno laughed lightly at the comment, Yona, on the other hand, looked at Riana with a small smile, but it was still a smile "You did well, more students should talk about you more in the hallways"

"Really? Wow, thanks, I just moved a little and took a few hits, it's no big deal" The compliment caused Riana to blush slightly, feeling somewhat strange at finally receiving recognition related to her combat style, which, according to several people, could be somewhat lacking from time to time.

The fights continued as normal, the rest of the WBRN and STRM teams had their respective fights, the 6 managed to defeat their opponents and have at least half a pass secured towards qualifying for the tournament, leaving one more fight remaining , which would again be Nora Valkyrie's decision.

Waylon felt slightly less sad or nervous than he had in the early morning, remembering his mother's messages was something that immediately flooded his mind with painful memories and pessimistic thoughts, his victory against Tatsuno and Yona had at least raised his spirits a little.

The red-eyed boy was now in the academy hallway, patiently waiting for his cousins to finish talking to different people, Bryan with Monica, nothing new, Neithan with a silver-haired girl named Sapphire Sustrai, whom Waylon managed to locate by knowing who her parents were, and Roy with Hawk, Waylon had barely found out that his cousin and the jerk who fought him in his first class seemed to have a strange tension, which made him very uncomfortable, but he wasn't going to complain or anything like that, because he had no right to do so.

"Hey" Riana appeared around a corner, smiling when she recognized Waylon "I was looking for you"

"I'm waiting for my team" Waylon replied, making a face of disgust "They're all… out on dates"

"Really?" Riana muttered, feeling her face heat up slightly "Well…since we're alone and classes are over, don't you think we could do something fun?"

Waylon quickly understood what Riana was referring to, however, he wanted to play a little "Like training? "

"No, no" Riana blushed even more, beginning to rub her hands together to calm her nerves "I mean, you know…uh…a date?"

Waylon couldn't help but laugh a little, making Riana even more nervous, even so, he gently took the girl's hand, squeezing it with some affection "Sure, that sounds nice"

...

The Schnee Corporations CEO's office was painfully quiet, just the way Winter liked it to be, however, ever since the incident with the Ex-Requiem prototype sword, things had gotten seriously complicated, especially with the workload that had on top.

The loss of the sword was very serious, the Ex line project was about weapons that used plasma energy, one that was capable of destroying incredibly resistant materials with a measly energy cell, which was capable of lasting for years, Although it was somewhat unstable and often damaged the weapons it fed, unfortunately for Winter, the most advanced prototype was in the hands of her son, who refused to talk to her.

There were very few times in her life when her considered the memory of Jacques Schnee, and this was one of those occasions.

The memory of her father and his way of handling problems with his children was very funny and ironic today, Jacques was very clever at giving punishments, when Winter decided to enlist in the Atlas army and enter the academy, Jacques decided to cut up her credit card, depriving her of all kinds of funds, and, in the process, creating a very great feeling of insecurity in his daughter.

He had done the same with Weiss when she refused to talk to him, it was a bit complicated for anyone to understand the punishment, but Winter understood it very well, she and her sister had grown up as people of the high class of Atlas, with money and all kinds of resources at their disposal, the fear of getting to the end of the month without being able to eat was not a fear for them, and Jacques knew it.

That was why he decided to deprive them of that privilege, something low but that worked, because both young women felt fear and some sadness at that time, and, as if it were a rather bad joke on the part of life itself, now it was Winter's son who constantly rejected her.

She had to do something.

The woman's Neo-Scroll vibrated a couple of times, an incoming call, the woman simply answered, holding back the urge to grimace at having to answer yet another call that day.

"Winter" Leonardo Lionheart II's robust and somewhat prominent appearance appeared in the Neo-Scroll hologram "Did you recover Ex Requiem?"

"No" Winter denied, covering her eyes with her gloved hand and rubbing her eyelids hard "I've been too busy lately, my son has the sword, it's safe…I'll get it back soon"

"Soon is not enough" Leonardo replied in a dry tone, though there was some fear behind his powerful façade "The Black Fang's attacks are becoming more constant, the most skilled Mistral Huntsmen are having a hard time against such large groups, that sword could save many lives"

"I know" Winter made an effort not to sound aggressive, she understood Leonardo's concern perfectly, but the exhaustion was simply too much for her "I need more time, there are more weapons that we can deliver to you in a shorter period of time"

"I'm aware of that" Leonardo growled, not even bothering to hide his displeasure "Haven trusts you, Winter, I trusted that your reputation as a veteran and the head of the most powerful company in the world was true, but if you can't take the gun away from your son, perhaps I'm underestimating you"

Winter bit her lip hard, almost on the verge of hurting herself, Leonardo didn't deign to say goodbye, he simply ended the call, giving the woman the opportunity to relax for a moment, letting her head fall back onto the chair.

Moments like this, where stress was hitting her brain every second or when her emotions just couldn't stay under control, was when she most wanted to escape from it all, just like she had done sometimes when she was younger, when she was a recent graduate of the academy.

When she met an old, cretinous, but attractive Qrow Branwen.

Winter couldn't help but laugh for a second, remembering her husband when they first met was something she always did to relax, he had been there, leaning against the wall outside General Ironwood's office, and when he saw her, a mischievous and smug smile formed on the man's face, and she couldn't help but arch an eyebrow at him.

He looked like a stupid drunk.

Winter tapped her fingers on her desk a couple of times, without thinking much, she activated her Neo-Scroll and entered her contacts, scrolling for a while through the stupidly large amount of people saved on the device, although she didn't remember even half of them, her contact with the name of Husband forced her to stop, bringing her finger closer to the video call button.

"Winter" Ruby Rose's voice forced Winter to look up, quickly moving her left hand down and sighing in irritation, Ruby was here again, it couldn't mean anything good.

"It's becoming kind of a bad habit for you to show up like this" Winter commented, not bothering to get up to greet her legal niece, her overloaded mind not having the energy to do even the bare minimum "What do you need ? Make it quick"

"I guess that you are not in the mood" Ruby was a little confused by her aunt's attitude, but she didn't show much concern about it "The tribe has stolen multiple EMPs from your trucks, I spoke to my uncle Qrow a few hours ago and he told me that maybe you could have an idea…or better yet, tell me about Laboratory 33.1"

"Laboratory 33.1, hmmmm" Winter felt a little more interested after the mention of her second, more special building on the outskirts of the city, still, she thought slowly "It's basically a very large testing lab, I used to use it a lot a few years ago to test biological weapons, as well as storing quite a bit of Dust, it's still operational, but the employees who worked there have been transferred here"

"My uncle Qrow suggested that maybe that's the tribe's next target" Ruby said, Winter arched an eyebrow, somewhat confused "I don't know how they would know about that, it's supposed to be secret and all, but maybe Felicia knows something…she was raised here in the city, after all"

"Or maybe there's a snitch" Winter groaned, shifting back into her chair and covering her face with her hands, tiredness was consuming her and she definitely needed a nap, the most appropriate thing to do would be to sleep in her office, but she felt the need to see her husband "Look, Ruby, I'm really… tired, right now, you can go to the building 33.1, there aren't any guards there, only Atlesian knights, and they're deactivated"

"Perfect" Ruby turned around and quickly headed towards the doors of Winter's office, before leaving, her brain reminded her of something very important, so her body turned once again to face the winter maiden "Have you… talked to Waylon?"

"I've tried" Winter cursed internally, she had been internally praying that Ruby wouldn't ask about Waylon "He doesn't answer my texts, nor his father's, it seems that… the driver's coma is too much for him, maybe he has also failed me…he is still very immature"

"You must understand" Ruby softened her voice a little, aware of the volatile mood Winter was in "You are a soldier, you are the Winter Maiden and practically the most important woman in the world…he is just a boy, this is new to him"

"I have been preparing him for this ever since he was conscious, he has trained himself to be what he is, a prodigy" Winter said quietly, remembering her son when he was younger, full of energy and with the ability to train for hours and hours before his aura ran out "…He acts like I did when I was younger"

Ruby smiled softly "You look tired, lonely, talk to him, try to go to the academy and fix all this…he needs you"

Ruby walked away without waiting for an answer, leaving Winter alone with her thoughts once again, the white-haired woman pondered her niece's words with some care, he needed her, perhaps that was the problem.

Winter raised him to be independent, just like Jacques had done with her, Winter can criticize many things about her father and it would definitely take a while for her to finish laying her cards on the table, however, he had managed to raise a strong daughter without even being there, he was not any kind of monster, he talked to his daughter from time to time, however, he wanted to make her strong, independent and special.

Time was against her, soon the investors of Phimisal and Mistral would begin to ask more frequently where the Ex Requiem sword was, there was no space to go to the academy, there was no space to do absolutely anything.

Winter couldn't help but feel her stomach turn as she thought a little about how he treated her son, it wasn't easy for her to treat him as if he were some kind of soldier, but this was what he needed, he needed to become strong.

He needed to show the world how capable he is of getting up and continuing to fight.

Winter fired up her Neo-Scroll once more, making a quick call to Vale's bank.

Jacques Schnee had methods that could still work today.

...

Waylon felt quite strange.

He had been to a fair very few times in his life, maybe a couple of times at most, the memories were blurry and he wasn't quite sure if his mind had modified them, but, he remembered getting on several rides with his parents, when Winter could be home and they did family activities, the Atlas festivals were beautiful and full of life, the nights at the food stalls in the floating kingdom, while he was being held by his uncle Jaune, were quite memorable.

Now, more self-aware, he could feel somewhat overwhelmed by the many gazes that were upon him.

He had never had a problem with people looking at him, but since what happened with Felicia, people's eyes no longer showed a pleasant admiration, but rather a distrust and disappointment strangely familiar to him, certainly making him uncomfortable.

"Everyone is looking at you" Riana murmured, grabbing Waylon's hand and holding it somewhat tightly "I'm sorry, I thought coming to the fair would be the easiest thing to do, but I was wrong, we can go if you want"

"It's okay" Waylon shook his head, accepting Riana's hold with enthusiasm "I can ignore the stares…for a while"

Riana nodded nervously, this was the first time she had been on a date in her short life, for some reason, she felt a little nervous about that very fact, she lacked any real experience in the romantic department, Waylon was quite popular in Pharos, she knew that, it was quite obvious that he had been on dates before.

"Have you dated other girls before?" Riana asked directly, she was bad at pretending, something she had unfortunately inherited from her father.

"Quite a few" Waylon replied without thinking much, taking only a few seconds to correct himself "But they were just casual things, to gain experience and all that, I always like to be prepared for everything…and this time is the same"

Waylon suddenly pulled Riana's arm, bringing her closer to a small place decorated with multiple lights of different colors, the girl was able to quickly recognize that it was a shooting game, the row of stuffed animals hanging from the ceiling also indicated that, Waylon quickly took the toy gun and with his free hand took a gold card from his dark jacket, handing it to the person in charge.

Waylon raised the gun and aimed at the multiple targets shaped like small aliens , he waited patiently for the price of the only attempt he needed to be withdrawn, to his bad luck, nothing happened.

"Is something wrong?" Waylon asked the manager, feeling somewhat impatient to impress Riana, and in the process win a stuffed animal for her.

"Your card has no funds" the manager said in a neutral tone, handing the gold card to Waylon, the red-eyed looked at the small object in some disbelief.

Was it empty?

Waylon quickly thought of an explanation for such a strange fact, his card loaded with hundreds of thousands of Lien was always at his disposal, it had been a gift from his mother when he was barely 10 years old, of course she made clear the consequences if he spent his money irresponsibly, the card would be canceled if he were to commit any kind of stupidity.

But he hadn't done anything wrong in the last few days, right?

Waylon looked at his Neo-Scroll with some concern, there was a notification, a message from his mother that he had received just a few minutes ago.

I have cancelled your card, you cannot use it until I give you access again, these are the consequences of acting as you do, when you deign to speak to me, we can discuss this.

Waylon felt his chest sink, he blinked a few times as he reread the message multiple times, his surroundings seemed to be stripped of all ability to make noise, as the dull beeping in his ear was the only thing he could hear.

Since he was a kid, he always had access to money and all sorts of luxuries, expensive purchases were nothing new to him, whenever a new video game came out, he was the first to have it, the newest console, the newest Neo-Scroll, everything was at his disposal.

Even if it sounded like a stupid thing, several of his classmates at Pharos respected him for his economic status, not everyone could afford to spend what he spent, he never had to worry about money, when he went out with his classmates, he ended up paying for everything, even if they weren't his friends, it was never a problem for him.

"Waylon" Riana called him, causing the place to regain sound and for him to turn to look at her, his pale face and lost gaze seemed to worry the girl, who took his arm "Are you okay?"

"You're making a line" the manager said in a dry tone, pointing to the line of people behind the teenage couple "Go away"

Riana frowned, but still dragged Waylon to make way for other people, the boy was still confused, his hands felt strangely clammy and his throat dry, was he nervous? Or scared?

"I brought my wallet, I never spend anything, so you could say I have 2% of your money" Riana tried to make a lame joke, just like the ones she used to make, however, Waylon didn't even look at her, and continued staring into nothingness.

"I'm sorry" Waylon muttered, rubbing his eyelids for a moment "Let's continue…I shouldn't screw this up"

The date went by more calmly, the conversation between the two became more casual and friendly, even if Waylon still seemed to be a little nervous and worried, Riana didn't try to ask directly about what he saw on his Neo-Scroll, she simply did everything she could to make him feel better.

They both tried a couple more attractions, the house of mirrors and the haunted house were just some of the many places full of life that they decided to explore, Riana felt somewhat satisfied when Waylon looked happier, finally allowing herself the luxury of being more affectionate.

Some hugs and affectionate comments came out of the girl's mouth, comments that Waylon responded to with some harmless mockery or not very subtle flirtation, something he had inherited from his father, the pleasant atmosphere that had formed between them was something he had been longing for lately, to be able to forget about everything else for a moment and enjoy someone's company.

He hadn't been able to do that lately, in fact, he hadn't done it in the last few years.

Riana was different from the other girls he had been with, he was no novice in the romantic field, he had had multiple run-ins with practically his entire group in Pharos, even the occasional groping between him and Myrian happened, but none had ever gone beyond that.

Riana had managed to enter his walls in a strange and peculiar way, perhaps related to the fact that these first months at Beacon were not being as simple or practical as he believed, she had already seen what he was really like, someone with quite fragile feelings who hides behind his abilities, but who in reality is just a poor boy who wants his mother's love.

She was physically attractive, of course, he couldn't deny that from time to time he ended up looking a little further into the brunette girl's face, but that wasn't the important thing about her, her way of being so kind and pure simply made him float towards her like some kind of firefly inside a lamp, something unique and strange.

There was something about her that made him feel good, he needed to stay close, at least for the moment.

Maybe, just maybe, he could tell her something personal.

"Have you ever wondered why my last name is Branwen?" Waylon suddenly asked, causing Riana, who was about to bite into her cotton candy, to suddenly stop.

"Not really" she admitted, thinking a little deeper on the subject "I don't pay much attention to the news…but, I admit I've read a bit lately, and I know you're treated more like a Schnee than a…Branwen" Riana cursed herself internally, he was obviously going to be treated as Winter Schnee's son, not a bandit.

"It's a funny thing, many don't know about it, and my mother has never answered directly" Waylon laughed softly at Riana's expression, although his own smile faded soon after "My mother wants me to forge a future of my own…she always saw her family name as something to overcome, she is a Schnee, she was always aware of that, but she wanted to be more, and she achieved it, SDC and Schnee Corporations are definitely not the same"

"She wants you to do something of your own?" Riana muttered, not quite understanding "But you are the heir of Schnee Corporations, isn't that a bit contradictory ? "

"According to her, I'll put my own personality into the company when I take over, maybe turn it into a Huntsman agency or something… she's been telling me that for as long as I can remember" Waylon looked up at the starry sky, the stars looked beautiful tonight "That's why I'm trying so hard at Beacon…and in life in general, so I can make her happy and fulfill her wishes"

"But what about your wishes?" Riana asked before she could think, Waylon's expression made her understand that he didn't quite understand her "Don't you want to do something for yourself that isn't related to your mother or her legacy?"

Waylon didn't answer immediately, instead he looked at his own hands for a second, the question turning over in his head a couple of times before he spoke again "I don't know...I guess I'll find out"

"Then I'll help you with that" Riana murmured somewhat shyly, her cheeks blushing as she took Waylon's hand, he smiled at the gesture, returning the squeeze gently.

The special moment was interrupted by a female scream, a certainly worrying one considering that it was followed by another series of screams and gasps of fear and surprise in equal measure, both Waylon and Riana got up from the bench to be able to locate the reason for the sudden disturbance, finding it with some ease.

Waylon felt his throat go dry as he recognized the figure of Felicia Torchwick, accompanied by multiple bandits of various shapes and sizes, almost all of them looked skinny and without even the ability to have a semblance, however, Waylon was worried when he saw one especially big, holding a rather unique weapon, it seemed to be two swords joined by a handle surrounded by a metallic crescent, the weapon had a similar appearance to Ex Requiem, so Waylon had to assume that it was another example of the Ex series.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen" Felicia lifted Melodic Cudgel and fired it into the sky, further panicking the civilians, the most agile ones quickly activated their devices and tried to alert the nearest authorities, their faces lost all traces of color when the Scrolls and Neo-Scrolls displayed a no signal message.

"There's no need to leave yet, the show hasn't started yet" Felicia muttered, the larger bandit dropped a strange cylindrical object, Waylon cursed internally as he recognized it as a Schnee Corporation weapon, capable of cutting off communications by producing an incredibly powerful signal "Waylon! I was really looking forward to seeing you, my last act was a bit disappointing and you were the cause of it, so we'll have to fix it somehow"

Felicia signaled all the bandits to head forward, the skinny bandits took rifles from their backs with practically prepared coordination, beginning to shoot towards the defenseless civilians, Waylon created a series of glyphs as quickly as he could, blocking the attacks and preventing almost all the bullets from crossing his barrier.

"This is not good" Waylon growled, creating a replica of Harbinger with a glyph in his right hand, his eyes shifting to Riana, who seemed to be far more worried than him "Try to get the civilians to safety… the haunted house should do for now!"

Waylon created even more glyphs to act as a shield against the barrage of bullets launched by the bandits, Riana acted as quickly as her body could move, screaming loudly and telling the civilians to take shelter.

"I like there to be some risk when I do an act" Felicia smirked, watching the people panic towards the attraction "But I want to ask you something, do you really think you can defeat me and my friends here? There are, like, a dozen more of us than you?"

Felicia fell silent as the glyphs glowed slightly, materializing Harbinger and firing them at absolutely all of the bandits, knocking out almost all of them except the largest one, who grunted without seeming hurt.

"Oh… well, that's interesting" Felicia muttered, looking at her lackeys on the floor "I tried so hard to convince them to come here… Raven will hang me alive… again"

"What do you want? An autograph? A photo?" Waylon asked with genuine curiosity, raising his sword in the direction of the mage "…My aunt knows about this?"

"Believe me, she doesn't know" Felicia laughed softly "I came to settle the score, you wiped the floor with me and basically humiliated me, now everyone in the tribe is a little suspicious about my failure, so, I want to make amends in my own way"

Felicia removed her hat and bowed, gesturing to the burly bandit, his mask doing nothing to hide the murderous aura he emanated "This is my assistant for today…and his tool, Ex Harpax, the real one is still being created in the depths of your dear mother's company, but I managed to create a half-working replica…I was even able to make a plasma cell that doesn't explode! Your mother still can't manage that, right?"

Waylon couldn't answer Felicia's question as the bandit lunged at him and grabbed him by the neck, lifting him into the air and hitting him firmly with Ex Harpax, throwing him backwards and causing the boy to spin around on the ground a couple of times.

Waylon groaned in pain slightly, the weapon was certainly large and Harbinger couldn't withstand a couple of strong blows, however, he had aura to spare, so it shouldn't be a problem.

A somewhat erroneous thought.

Waylon felt the bandit's fist on his face, completely turning his body around and receiving a precise cut on his back, the boy's grunt seemed to give more encouragement to the masked man, as he grabbed the red-eyed by the legs and made him stumble, giving him a strong kick in the stomach.

The pain was becoming more and more unbearable, Waylon growled loudly as he took his sword and spun it a couple of times, hitting the bandit but without making a scratch on him, this only irritated the white-haired boy even more.

Waylon raised his sword in time to make it crash against one of Ex Harpax blades, the bandit growled loudly and used even more force in his grip, managing to destroy the summoned weapon and leaving the teenager completely defenseless.

"You look like a punching bag" Felicia commented absentmindedly, sitting on the ground as she watched the fight with some boredom, the blows her lackey landed on the boy's body clearly looked painful, though it was impressive that Waylon still had his aura unbroken in the first place "How you beat me? Maybe I was a little asleep or confused"

Waylon didn't hear Felicia's comment, the iron grip that rested on his neck was much more worrying than the woman's words, the bandit squeezed his neck tightly, throwing him once again into the air, causing him to crash headlong into a food stand.

Waylon groaned for a moment, placing his hand on the ground as his head spun, he blinked a few times to get used to his new surroundings, finding the bandit dragging his sword on the ground, slowly approaching him.

Waylon also looked to his side, finding a small child.

Waylon felt his energies return to him in an instant, the boy looked quite scared and shocked, his small body trembled with terror as he recognized the imposing figure of the bandit, the red-eyed quickly got up from the ground, throwing a replica of Arondite in the direction of his opponent.

Waylon wrapped his arms around the little boy, quickly lifting him off the ground and moving agilely to the side of the bandit, avoiding an accurate blow, the red-eyed stopped when he was next to a claw-themed attraction, placing the boy behind it.

"Everything will be okay" Waylon murmured softly in his voice, stroking the boy's hair "Where are your parents?"

The boy sobbed for a few more moments, Waylon's caresses were doing their job and he was calming down a bit, but he could still hear the huge bandit walking with a painful slowness. "Mom...she was hurt by...a bullet...she has no aura...and...the girl with…black hair…took her..."

"Okay, we'll find your mother later, I need you to stay here" Waylon smiled confidently, feeling a new energy flow through his body "I'll take care of that guy, don't worry"

The boy nodded, giving Waylon the opportunity to return to the fight, his hand once again holding Harbinger as he approached the huge bandit once more, who growled in annoyance at seeing him still standing.

"I like that sword" Waylon pointed at Ex Harpax, without waiting another second he lunged forward, raising his own sword and swinging it with great force towards the bandit's chest, the clash of weapons was something that was already expected, however, this time, he summoned Arondite with impressive agility, and threw it directly at the bandit's jaw.

The bandit staggered back as his head was practically flipped upwards by the impact of the spear, Waylon prepared to deal a final blow, creating multiple glyphs around the masked man.

Somewhat comically and strangely, the same target practice he had attempted to test earlier crashed into the bandit, knocking him to the side and causing his aura to flicker, without another second's thought, Waylon created another replica of Arondite, launching it accurately into the bandit's chest, shattering his aura along with the spear itself.

"Wow, that cost me… a lot" Riana smiled proudly, her hands holding her knees as she panted heavily, Waylon quickly approached her, preventing her from falling to the ground "My telekinesis isn't like Glynda Goodwitch's…moving a car would kill me"

"You saved me, that is enough" Waylon commented, looking in Felicia's direction, she was still there, although she looked somewhat upset "I still have to take care of her, go cover yourself"

"But that freak swept the floor with you!" Riana commented with concern, trying to get out of the red-eyed grip "Let me help you!"

"I won't let you put yourself in danger like that" Waylon replied somewhat harshly, killing the words that were going to come out of Riana's mouth "I promise nothing will happen to me, I owe you a second date, anyway"

Riana blushed slightly, but finally gave up and nodded, Waylon summoned a glyph in front of him, slowly inserting his hand, as he took it out, an exact replica of Ex Harpax, blue and somewhat transparent.

"I don't know what I was expecting" Felicia commented to herself in annoyance, picking up Melodic Cudgel and starting to walk forward, her arms outstretched to her sides "Impressive! I underestimated your abilities for a moment, forgive me, It seems like no one is in a coma this time, right?"

Waylon felt his stomach turn at the woman's words, but he didn't hesitate to lift his new weapon, with some difficulty due to its size "What do you want? Revenge for your father? To honor a simple failure?"

"My father was many things, failure was not a word he knew" Felicia growled, clearly offended, twirling her cane a couple of times "I will teach you a lesson…"

Felicia didn't take another second to attack, firing multiple pellets in the boy's direction, Waylon moved to the side to avoid the projectiles, with some hesitation, he felt the handle of his weapon, finding a trigger.

Upon pressing it, both blades became infused with plasma energy, Waylon moved nimbly forward, spinning his weapon a couple of times, Felicia dodged each attack gracefully, landing a precise blow to the boy's ribs after a somewhat long spin.

"It's funny that your mother refuses to talk about you" Felicia commented, landing another blow "Usually, mothers are proud of their sons' strength…"

Waylon swung Ex Harpax hard, managing to hit the side of the weapon with Felicia's face, knocking her back and giving himself some time to breathe and regain rhythm.

"My mother didn't appreciate my abilities like I did…she wanted me to live a normal life, but that was never my destiny" Felicia muttered, firing multiple shots in Waylon's direction, forcing him to take cover "I am destined for greatness"

Waylon grunted in pain as he felt another blow from Melodic Cudgel on his legs, his body slammed into the ground, Felicia's foot buried itself in his stomach, finally eliciting a scream from the boy.

"You think you're destined for greatness?" Felicia asked, grabbing the boy's hair and lifting his head, staring at him with a decidedly cold expression "You hold back, you think you're part of the good guys just because you're a Huntsman? You're weak"

Waylon growled loudly, attempting to raise his double-edged sword, only to receive a knee to the nose, his aura didn't seem to succumb to the impact, even he was impressed of that.

"Use all your potential" Felicia growled loudly, stomping her foot on his back in true anger "Show me what you're made of!"

Waylon grabbed the handle of his double-edged sword with both hands, moving it with impressive force to the side, managing to impact the upper blade with Felicia's leg, finally pushing her away from him.

Waylon didn't wait another second, his body recomposed itself in an instant and he dropped his weapon, connecting with a punch in Felicia's face, making her stagger back, the boy grabbed her by the neck firmly, beginning to tighten his grip.

Waylon pinned Felicia to the ground, beginning to hit her multiple times in the face, the woman seemed to finally realize what was happening, and tried to defend herself by creating a sound bomb, Waylon firmly hit the woman's neck, causing an incredible burning for her.

A replica of Harbinger appeared in the boy's right hand, the fingers of his left hand perfectly surrounded Felicia's neck, partially obstructing the passage of air, the boy slowly raised his sword, fixing it on the woman's chest, perhaps, Harbinger could pierce her heart and-

Waylon stopped.

The strangely dark thought that passed through his mind was gone as quickly as it came, the boy blinked a couple of times, all the anger released seemed to disappear in a second, his grip on Felicia's neck relaxed, releasing her.

The woman coughed several times, gasping for air, Waylon got up from the ground still confused.

He had succumbed to a provocation, once again.

He remembered doing it when he fought Hawk, the black-haired boy's precise and humiliating words hurt him so much that he lost control for a moment and used more force than necessary, this time, he thought about ending Felicia's life.

He was going to cross a limit that he didn't even know he had.

He never thought about killing anyone, ending a life felt like something too distant and heavy, whenever he fought against a human, he tried not to seriously injure them, losing control still seemed like something unheard of, he had let his emotions take control of him.

Waylon looked up when he heard an engine, his eyes recognized an armored vehicle which was quickly moving away from the entrance of the fair, he turned slightly to see if the burly bandit was still there, finding only the "real" Ex Harpax.

Quickly, people began to leave the haunted house, the gratitude from all the civilians was something that slightly surprised Waylon, the little boy he saved before went in the direction of his mother, a woman with black hair and red eyes, who thanked Waylon deeply for saving her son, the bullet wound in her shoulder needed to be treated immediately, so she couldn't thank him completely, however, she did say her name, Aphra Camble.

It took the authorities a couple more hours to arrive at the fair, with no choice but to simply take the testimony of almost all the witnesses and send Waylon and Riana home, a warning was all the punishment they received for the moment, something that the red-eyed was deeply grateful for, having saved some lives had felt pretty good.

At this point the appropriate thing would be to return to Beacon, however, Waylon decided that one more stop had to be made.

...

Both teenagers stopped at a food stand to regain energy and talk more calmly, the recent events of the night had been somewhat heavy for both of them, each one's thoughts continued to be a mystery to the other, for different reasons.

Waylon remained silent and calm as he looked at the burger in his hand, his appetite faded some time ago, the mere fact of not having access to his fortune already discouraged him, Riana apparently had no problem, as she invited him once again, this time to eat.

The boy turned his head slightly, finding his partner devouring her third consecutive burger in a bite that bordered on the comical point, Waylon appreciated for a moment the strange way in which the girl chewed the bread, or her whimpers as she savored the unique essence of junk food.

At any other time, he would have seen it as a savage act.

Now, he saw it as something cute.

"These burgers are so good!" Riana gasped in pure happiness, the lack of response forced her to turn her head to look at Waylon, who had no apparent emotion on his face, the girl looked down at his hands, he hadn't eaten his burger "Can I steal it from you ? "

Waylon didn't get a chance to respond when Riana simply snatched his food from his hands, devouring her dinner in a couple of seconds, the girl smiled in satisfaction as she licked her lips, while he simply continued to watch her.

She was close, very close.

"You got something here" Waylon murmured, gently placing his thumb near Riana's lips, wiping away a smear of cheese " You eat in a funny way, you know that?"

Riana laughed nervously, blushing because of how close their faces were "Yeah…hey, this is the part where you kiss me, right?"

Waylon smiled softly, firmly taking the girl's chin and planting a kiss on her cheek, Riana melted at the touch, looking at him totally lost and deep in thought.

"Just settle for that, if you hadn't stolen my dinner, maybe I would have given you a kiss" Waylon said mockingly, causing the girl to hide her face in her hands and begin to curse herself in a somewhat funny way.

Waylon finally admitted that he did at least like Riana a little.

...

The outskirts of Vale City were grim compared to the rest of the city, poverty seemed to predominate, some buildings lacked electricity, even if the plant that gave life to the city was quite close.

Ruby felt certainly uncomfortable and somewhat sad, several homeless people looked at her with curiosity, some with contempt, and others didn't even notice her, they simply continued looking for a source of heat or something to soothe their sorrows.

An area full of poverty, which could never be restored to perfection even after the fall of Beacon, the Malachite twins had control of the poorest parts of the city, they practically ruled here, there was not a police station for miles, and, as if it were a joke, the Huntsmen who tried to work in these areas ended up threatened with death by the black bear syndicate.

Ruby decided not to pay much attention to that, she stopped in front of a rather broken and battered mesh, crossing it without problems, her eyes raised when she saw an incredibly powerful source of light, the electric power plant of the city of Vale.

And next to this same one, Schnee Corporations Laboratory 33.1.

Ruby bit her lip for a second, unsure of what she might find inside her aunt's company facility, however, if she wanted to get ahead of Felicia, she would have to do so.

It had been a few days since she heard from her, Felicia was defeated by Waylon at a fair on the other side of town, leaving behind a weapon that ended up at Schnee Corp's headquarters, a device that disrupted communications had been used, Ruby couldn't see the correlation with the EMPs she recovered, she had to investigate a little more.

Ruby sighed one last time, heading towards what she believed to be the Branwen tribe's main motivation.